China is on the Path to quickly Build a Knowledge Society if it can overcome its biggest challenge – the reform of its education system.
This is the last of our trilogy of analyses looking at important, and very common, misperceptions about China:
- Slowing growth makes China a less attractive opportunity than previously (or than other emerging markets)
- Fast rising wages mark the end of low production costs in China
- China copies intellectual property and will not turn into a scientific and technological power
Throughout history, Chinese civilization was used to being the most advanced society of its known environment. Many historians agree that from the 8th to the 14th century, China was the world’s innovation leader. Iron furnaces, paper, printing, the compass, gunpowder, clocks, fixed ruder ships, are a few of the inventions we owe to the Chinese. China was the initial center of civilization in the East and its culture spread throughout Asia. Around 1820, when industrial revolution got in full swing in Britain, China’s size also made it the economic superpower of the time: it accounted for no less than 30% of world GDP. While the term 中国 zhong guo, the name the Chinese gave to their country, was translated in the West by the “Middle Kingdom”, the general concept of the term originates from the belief of the ancient Zhou Dynasty, being the “centre of civilization” or “centre of the world”.
It is then no wonder that the Chinese were deeply surprised and shocked by the ease with which comparatively small foreign nations could suddenly defeat them. Beijing was conquered in 1860 by less than 10’000 British and French troops. In 1900, 20’000 soldiers from the 8-Nations. Alliance landed in Tianjin and made their way to take control of Beijing with little losses, at a time when China already had a population of 450 million. China started to realize that size is an advantage, but no match by itself to advanced technology and organization. If China was to maintain its independence and its position in the world, it needed to bridge the science and technology gap with developed nations as fast as possible.